Baby Boomers May Transform America, based on Marc Freedman's book Prime Time, by Celeste Adams

Today we are wasting resources of incalculable value: the accumulated knowledge, the mature wisdom, the seasoned experience, the skilled capacities, the productivity of a great and growing number of our people — our senior citizens.

— Senator John F. Kennedy, 1956

In his new book, Prime Time: How Baby Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform America, Marc Freedman gives a voice to the millions of baby boomers who will soon begin to enter the third stage of life. His book is "an eye-opening account of the impact of changing demographics and the continued importance of the tidal wave of baby boomers washing through middle age," writes the CEO of the YMCA. The New York Times notes that Prime Time "provides a new vision of aging, retirement, and the role of the older Americans in the 21st century."

Baby boomers — people born between the years 1946 and 1964 — are now between 39 and 57 years old. Currently, they represent about 29 percent of the population in the United States.

Some baby boomers experienced the death of President Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King. Many who were born in the earlier part of this period fought in Vietnam, or protested the Vietnam War. Some went to Beatle concerts, others to Woodstock.

And, although baby boomers are a diverse group of people, the one thing they have in common is that they are living nearly twice as long as previous generations.

The implications of the new longevity

In Prime Time, Marc Freedman begins his chapter on "The Aging Opportunity" with a quote by John Tierney: "We're living through the greatest miracle in the history of our species — the doubling of life expectancy since the Industrial Revolution — but we prefer to believe that our troubles are growing."

Longevity, he says, has increased for a number of reasons. Boomers understand the importance of having better diets, and they recognize the value of a regular exercise regimen and routine checkups. They stay abreast of the advances in medicine, and know how to circumvent some of the illnesses that afflicted their parents.

And baby boomers are more likely to be involved in some spiritual path. According to Zorba Paster, M.D., in his book The Longevity Code, research shows that people who follow a spiritual path have longer lives. He feels that this is because prayer, the recitation of mantras, and meditation alleviate stress.[1] Whether or not they pray or meditate, boomers are more aware than their parents were of the need to reduce the anxiety, depression, and negative attitudes that challenge emotional well-being.

As a result of living longer, Freedman notes, boomers not only have serial marriages, they have serial careers. Many boomers find that instead of watching their careers winding down, they are taking on new careers in midlife — either by choice or by circumstance.

These second or third careers often provide the opportunity for people to do work that is more fulfilling and reflects their deeper interests.

The boomer transformation

Freedman explains that 80 million baby boomers are reaching their late fifties, and that they are transforming America "into a place where, for the first time ever, there will be more older adults than children and youth."

Although there is a growing awareness of the magnitude of this change in demographics, this shift has often been viewed with ambivalence. Freedman challenges the gloomy predictions of financiers and economists who are dominating public debate about aging. They speak of a demographic "time bomb" which will "sink America, and take the whole civilized world down with it," Freedman says, but explains that he wishes to focus instead on the opportunities inherent in aging.

He believes that "America's burgeoning older population is poised to become the new trustees of civic life in this country." The boomers, he explains, will not accept old notions of later life and retirement. They will not be taken out of circulation. Instead of retiring, they will 'retread.'"

Historical perspectives on aging

In his chapter titled "A Year 'Round Vacation," Freedman points out that in early America older people were considered "keepers of the culture." Since only two percent of the population lived past sixty-five, those who did were regarded as elders and were treated with great respect.

In those times, society was oriented toward tradition and traditional values, and people turned to the past for guidance. Early Americans tried to appear older than they really were — men powdered their wigs so that their hair would look white as wool. They even exaggerated their age.

It was a culture where the young depended upon the wisdom of the old, and older adults were honored by the devotion of the young.

Contribution above leisure

In 1964, Calvin Trillin wrote an article for the New Yorker on the retirement community at Sun City. Trillin interviewed one of the residents at Sun City, who said, "I'm an outcast because I'm 67 years old. I think the whole damn bunch of us are outcasts who have found a way of living without impinging on anybody or bothering anybody."

Since the time of that interview, Congress has declared that Sun City is the "Volunteerism Capital of the World." Many of the residents are finding greater fulfillment in life by volunteering with Habitat for Humanity projects and the Westside Food Bank, rather than spending endless hours golfing.

Freedman writes, "If Sun City was the emblematic institution of the outgoing era of later life in America, then this little-known initiative might well be characterized as embryonic of what we will need to devise in the next stage. It points the way toward a new era of aging defined more by the desire to leave a legacy than to lead lives consumed by leisure."

Mobilization into community service

Freedman focuses on the vast potential in America's aging population, and stresses the win-win opportunities available to those who are aging in terms of their ability to volunteer their services in different areas of American life.

Through five first-person narratives, Freedman introduces us to the men and women in the "third stage of life" who are making remarkable contributions to society. They are working as part-time medical staff serving low-income families, teaching children how to read, and building houses for the poor.

The notion of older Americans contributing in substantial ways to their communities is not an unprecedented idea, Freedman says. "Indeed, these kinds of contributions were an essential and expected part of American life in the days of the Puritans. However, most conscious efforts to enable them, through creating new roles designed for that purpose, date only to the 1960s — to a period when a small renaissance of creativity in this area briefly flourished."

When President John F. Kennedy spoke before the White House Conference on Aging in 1961, he said that now that we had added "years to life," it was time to think about how to add "life to years."

In another speech, in 1963, he spoke about the loneliness and isolation that afflicted older Americans. He also proposed concrete remedies on aging through establishing a new National Service Corps, or NSC. At that time, only one in ten older Americans was involved in volunteer activities. Senator Harrison Williams, in supporting the NSC, said:

Millions of Americans who have years of productivity and service to offer are dormant. Retired teachers, craftsmen, tradesmen really don't want to go to the seashore to fade away. They want to help. So many of these people have come forward that I am convinced they can accomplish something unique in this country, something undone by all the Federal, State, country and private agencies, something still to be done.
This vision of mobilizing older Americans in community service was defeated when Congress rejected the NSC and other variations on it that were proposed over the years that followed.

Since that time, organizations have been created such as The Foster Grandparent Program. In one Freedman interview, Louise Casey explains that she joined the Foster Grandparent Program out of desperation. "Retirement is for the birds," she says, and adds that she finds working with critically-ill children much more rewarding than crocheting and making satin coat hangers.

There is a small stipend that goes along with being involved in the Foster Grandparents Program, as well as for a program called Senior Companions. These stipends are thought to be an ingenious idea, since they allow people of modest means to make a commitment to these services and cover many out-of-pocket expenses.

Freedman writes: "Because the roots of the Foster Grandparent and Senior Companion programs in this country are in the War on Poverty, these efforts exclusively involve low-income older Americans, the segment of the population most likely to be overlooked and undervalued by virtue of age, income, education levels (and often gender). All participants in these programs are older and poor, the vast majority are women, and just over half are members of minority groups."

Opening our hearts

Freedman begins his chapter on "Reinventing Retirement" with a quote by Peter Drucker: "The best way to predict the future is to create it."

Freedman interviews Jack McConnell, who became concerned with the division that existed between the haves and the have-nots in Hilton Head, Long Island — they were literally divided by the walls of gated communities. McConnell and his peers lived in palatial houses with golf courses and waterways, while outside of their domains lived maids, gardeners, and servants who were at or near the poverty line and couldn't even afford medical care.

McConnell was deeply concerned at this inequity, and built a clinic on the Island to serve their needs. Freedman visited the clinic and was impressed with the its mission statement:

May we have eyes to see those rendered invisible and excluded, open arms and hearts to reach out and include them, healing hands to touch their lives with love, and in the process, heal ourselves.
"The Doctors, nurses, receptionists, and others moving so purposefully through the corridors," Freedman writes, "were only slightly older than those at the average clinic or doctor's office. There it is not uncommon to see many people in their fifties and sixties. Here there are many people in their sixties and seventies, along with some younger individuals and a few older ones. The difference is subtle. Yet it is still quite moving to see so many people who might otherwise be prematurely put out to pasture — or at least out to the pasture in Hilton Head called the golf course — so thoroughly engaged in doing important things."

Harold Allen, at sixty-eight, is portrayed as an example of people "engaged in doing important things." As part of a team of fifteen Experience Corps members at the Taylor Elementary School in North Philadelphia, Allen tells Freedman: "When I retired from the city in 1988, I wasn't ready to retire. When I was working, I was involved in decision-making. There were certain standards to meet. All of a sudden you don't have a specific time to get up. You read the paper . . . do crossword puzzles. People look at you and say things like, 'I can't wait until I can retire so I can sit around like you.' But in reality, you wake up in the morning and wonder why."

Harold is excited about being a part of Experience Corps since it helps him create positive change in the lives of troubled youth. He says, "We supply two main things the children are missing: that family tie they are not always getting at home, and the individual attention that's impossible for the teacher to give in the classroom of thirty."

From time bomb to time boom

At the present time, men and women in midlife are overworked, while older men and women are underused. Freedman writes, "One group faces a time famine; the other is adrift in a sea of discretionary time. . . Transformation of the nature of the third age holds the potential to redress this imbalance, so that the middle-agers receive a much needed respite while individuals in later life gain lives with additional purpose, meaning, structure, and significance."

Freedman optimistically asserts that there is a big payoff for the graying of America. "In our whirlwind society where everything seems to be moving faster, the slowness of an expanding population of third-agers may well be precisely the counterbalance that is needed. This group promises to become the bastion of those many things in life better done slowly, principal among them the cultivation of relationships and the expression of care. Indeed, from this perspective, we may find ourselves headed not for a 'demographic time bomb,' but a new 'time boom' — one in which older adults become the new role models for balanced lives, the middle generation finds itself with a more manageable set of responsibilities, and appreciation of the virtues of slowness begins to take hold in the wider culture."

A resource directory for getting involved

In Primetime, Marc Freedman lists several organizations, some of which he recommends for volunteerism. These include:

Civic Ventures: Freedman founded Civic Ventures in 1998 to expand the contribution of older Americans to society. This organization seeks to create more compelling opportunities for older Americans, so that they can serve their community. See CivicVentures.org.

Experience Corps: This organization provides schools and other youth-serving organizations with a critical mass of caring older adults. They help to improve the academic performance of young people. See ExperienceCorps.org.

The Corporation for National Service: CNS provides opportunities for Americans of all ages to serve, and functions as the umbrella for a number of national service programs, including AmeriCorps, AmeriCorps VISTA, and many others.

National Senior Service Corps: The Senior Corps is a national network of three projects: Foster Grandparent Program, Senior Companion Program, and the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program. See cns.gov.

Volunteers in Medicine: VIM clinics provide free medical and dental services to families who are financially challenged. The clinics are staffed by retired medical professions and other volunteers, and there is a small number of paid staff. Tel: 843-681-6612 or 561-223-4962.

Elderhostel: This is a nonprofit organization that provides educational opportunities all over the world to adults age fifty-five and over. See ElderHostel.org.

Habitat for Humanity: This nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry is dedicated to eliminating substandard housing and homelessness. See Habitat.org.

The Environmental Alliance for Senior Involvement: EASI promotes an environmental ethic among older adults, with the hope that these individuals will become actively involved in caring for our environment. See EASI.org.

The Peace Corps: Individuals involved in the Peace Corps work in all skill sectors, though they are primarily concentrated in education and business. There are eleven recruiting offices around the country. See PeaceCorps.gov.

SCORE: The Service Corps of Retired Executives is dedicated to entrepreneur education and the formation, growth and success of small business nationwide. See SCORE.org.

The Executive Service Corp: ESC consultants are retired businessmen and women who volunteer their time to consult with nonprofit and public service agencies. See ESCUS.org.

The American Association of Retired Persons: AARP is the nation's largest aging organization and operates numerous volunteer, service and employment programs. See AARP.org.

Marc Freedman is the founder and president of Civic Ventures, the former Vice-President of Public/Private Ventures. Besides Primetime, he also wrote The Kindness of Strangers.

A recent Visiting Fellow at King's College, University of London, and recipient of the Atlantic Fellowship in Public Policy, he now lives in San Francisco, California.